RAPTORS NOTEBOOK: Stellar defence just the norm now with Raptors

In a performance like Friday’s when everyone not named Norman Powell seemingly forgot how to shoot straight, it was only the defence that saved them.

In any other year the plaudits would be flowing from the head coach and to the players congratulating themselves on not letting the poor offensive night dictate their defensive effort.

Any other year that would be the case.

But this year, with the defence locked in since training camp, it’s just expected.

Nick Nurse was asked post-game if a defensive performance like that reinforced the defensive principals he’s been preaching since he took over the job.

Rather than agree, Nurse basically said the team is at the point where those things no longer need reinforcing. They’re part of the team’s DNA.

“I think the way we’re approaching games, they’ve bought in,” Nurse said. “They know kind of what the defence means to this team and what it’s meant in the past and they come out there playing it for the most part.

“Not very many mistakes in coverages, some, but not many. But then just real good, hard, tough play and by all five guys at the same time over the quarter ends up in a lot of stops.”

At one point in the third quarter the Raptors defence was impentrable.

From a Khem Birch floater at the 8:54 mark to an Al-Farouq Aminu three pointer with 2:37 to go in the period, the Magic were held scoreless over 16 possessions. Over that time the Raptors went from a six-point deficit to a four-point lead.

That kind of defensive consistency keeps a team in games. The early shooting struggles that hit everyone on the Raptors on Friday night, including Powell until he climbed out of his funk in the third, can take the fight out of a team in a hurry. The defence, though, kept the Raptors close despite a season-worst 40-point first half. Fred VanVleet said the thought of being out of a game just doesn’t occur to this group.

“We were all pretty light-hearted,” VanVleet said even after that offensively horrid first half. “I know that myself, as probably as ugly as you can start … I wasn’t stressed out or down on myself in the least.

“Just come into the locker room, you regroup, look at the tape and see where you can be better and that is the good thing about being experienced and playing defence in the playoffs is that these games you are able to stay level headed and figure it out,” he said. “We were able to get out of here with a win.”

TURNING HEADS IN THE G-LEAGUE

Brampton’s Tyler Ennis return to action following a full year of recovery from a broken tibia is off to a flying start.

Through seven games with the Raptors 905, Ennis is averaring 19 points, nine assists and 2.7 steals a game. The nine assists are second in the league to Josh Magette, who is averaging 10. Ennis is third on the team in scoring behind newly arrived Justin Anderson and Devin Robinson.

Best of all he is showing no ill effects from the broken leg that was serious enough some were concerned it would end his playing career.

The 25-year-old, 6-foot-3 guard is back doing what he was always meant to do. The struggles of his earlier NBA career from a fiirst-round pick to a guy struggling to find minutes are long in the past.

MORE CANADA NEWS

Oshae Brissett, who has been jumping back and forth between the 905 and the Raptors as one of the team’s two-way players, is the latest to commit to Canada’s last-chance Olympic qualifier this summer giving Nurse, as of press time, eight NBA players on their way to camp assuming injuries don’t derail them. The list now includes Birch, Dillon Brooks, Jamal Murray, Shae Gilgeous-Alexander, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, RJ Barrett, Chris Boucher and Brissett with more expected.

Brissett opened eyes with his play in the run-up to last summer’s FIBA World Cup during games in Australia. An injury prevented him from taking part in the actual tournament in China, but he made a lasting impression with Nurse and the coaching staff with his play in the tune-up games.

QUICK HITS

The career best scoring night for Powell on Friday night in Orlando overshadowed another career night by a member of the Raptors. VanVleet had seven steals in the game, two more than his previous high set a week earlier in a game against Charlotte … As a team, the Raptors had 16 steals in the game, three more than previous high set in that same game a week earlier in a win over Charlotte.

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